Indonesian Ulema say Taliban not ‘well-informed’ on peace conference

KABUL (Pajhwok): Indonesian Ulema Council has decided to go with the planned trilateral Ulema Conference later this month despite the Taliban refusal to participate in the meeting, a media report said on Monday.

“Maybe the Taliban is not well- informed and received the wrong information about the conference,” MUI’s head of international relations department, Muhyiddin Junaidi told Arab News.
“We just want to listen to them and share our experience in resolving conflicts. We also want to synchronize our procedures on issuing a fatwa,” Junaidi added.

MUI Secretary-General Anwar Abbas said they expect representatives from the Taliban to attend the meeting since this is part of the peace process efforts.
The Foreign Ministry’s director for the South and Central Asia region, Ferdy Piay, told Arab News that the ministry is aware of Taliban’s statement but declined to comment further, saying that the ministry will need to review the statement first.

Earlier, the Taliban described the peace process as “deceptive” efforts and that their enemies were going to trick respected Islamic scholars into gathering in Jakarta, a statement published on their website said.
In a message they sent to Afghan, Pakistani, Indonesian and other Islamic countries scholars, the Taliban called on them to avoid participating in such conference.
“Do not afford an opportunity to the invading infidels in Afghanistan to misuse your name and participation in this conference as means of attaining their malicious objective,” the statement said.
nh